Studies of sensory and learning processes in newborns and infants up to the age of one year are carried out. Increased knowledge about the behavioral functioning of the young human will reveal the mechanisms through which experiential factors influence development, and will promote advances in the detection and treatment of developmental aberrations. The understanding of children's development is sought, in this research, through the study of behavior processes which are influenced by cumulative stimulation and repetitive opportunities to respond. Our techniques included those of classical and operant learning, habituation, and procedures for documenting discriminative behavior through the elicitation of autonomic and motor responses. Polygraphic recoding enables documentation of sucking behavior, respiration, heart rate, and body movement under both basal and various stimulating conditions. Heavy emphasis in the research program is currently placed on the careful recoding of various aspects of the sucking response, under conditions in which the infant sucks non-nutritively, or to receive different sweet solutions. Because recent findings indicate clearly that sweetness of the fluid sucked affects both sucking parameters and heart rate, follow-up information is collected at 8 months of age to determine whether behavioral stabilities exposed during the neonatal period persist. Under this grant, research facilities as follows are supported: (a) A neonate sensory and learning laboratory at the Providence Lying In Hospital, (2) A behavior assessment lab at St. Vincent's Home for Infants, where infants are seen from birth to 6 months, and (3) Follow-up testing and experimentation in the Child Study Center at Brown University.